Saturday, November 16, 2013

Red Dust by Ben Dixon and Sam Campbell: Spotlight and Excerpt

Red Dust: The Fall is the first trilogy of short stories in the Red Dust series. These stories are The Lost Party, Feud and The Last Rider.

The Lost Party

When a party of settlers go missing on the Wasatch Mountains of 1846 America, a lone mountain man tasks himself with finding the lost pioneers. Upon the discovery of the remnants of a diary, George Masterson finds himself pulled into the dark story that befell the ill-fated travellers.

Feud

America 1853, seven years since the disappearance of the lost party, the undead have emerged from the wilderness crossing the Great Plains to assault the civilised world. Communication has broken down and settlements now stand alone as the Rising Plague spreads across the eastern border.

In the town of Little Rock inhabitants of the New World thrive to create normality in the midst of chaos. With the arrival of a mysterious rider named Griffin, the true dangers of the town become clear. The illusion of civilisation quickly dissolves as Griffin’s appearance sparks the violent conclusion of a deep-rooted vendetta.

The Last Rider

The Rising Plague continues to spread mercilessly across America, leaving the remnants of the US government to lead a desperate defence in defiance of the undead. Yet in the face of their doom, the beginnings of a civil tension arises, as the Southern State’s succeed, leaving a dire split across the US and its people hopelessly divided.

Isaac, a young courier, volunteers himself to deliver a mysterious package for the Union military. His task will lead him deep into the heart of the unknown, through the decaying civilisation of a country that he can no longer call his home, as his eyes are opened to the horrors of the New World.

They would say that he came from across the sea.

The lone figure astride a horse emerged from the emptiness of the hot, dusty plains that expanded like a sea encompassing the solitary town of Little Rock. In the dying light of the evening sun, it was those who survived on the border of the settlement who witnessed the rider first. The poor and the sick, all victims of the time in which they lived, now stood transfixed, mouths agape and eyes wide as the stranger cantered through the slum like area of ragged tents and rotten cabins, oblivious to the absurdity of his arrival. Even as he trotted right pass them, the borderland residents still believed he could have been a mirage, that their minds had finally betrayed their rationality in the madness of this new world. No one had come from the plains in months, and never before alone, it did not belong to the living anymore.

Upon passing through the fringe of the shanty town, the Stranger made his way down the central road, riding into the heart of Little Rock, passing the traffic of people as they closed shops and businesses before escaping to the false refuge of homes or the ignorant bliss of drinking holes.

Silently and furtively, he studied the canvas that opened up around him, mapping everything to detail in his head. The stranger knew what types of side arms the people carried. He could see from a man’s eyes who would fight, who would run, and who he would have to kill. He did not want to have these thoughts, not anymore, but they were innate, created by a nightmare of past experiences, fighting down in the mud and hell below.

Ben Dixon and Sam Campbell are friends who met during University studying History. We have had a few different ideas including graphic novels and fantasy novels but the work we started with was Red Dust, a story of the Wild West plagued by zombies. In between working our regular jobs we try our best to write and publish.

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